Mudlarking: Custom Coins and Tokens
By Jason Sandy
Painting of 19th-century tea clipper ship called Taunton, 1884 (W.S. Alfred).
Have you ever thrown a coin into a fountain for good luck? This is an age-old tradition which continues today. Over the years, mudlarks have found hundreds of 18th-century copper pennies (below left) and halfpennies on the bottom of the River Thames.
Sailors possibly threw the coins into the river to “buy the wind” and gain good fortune on their journey.
Left: Georgian penny dated 1742 (Jason Sandy). Right: 18th-century love token for Mary Coombs (Graham duHeaume)
In the 18th century, ocean-going ships did not have motors or steam engines, so they depended solely on the power of the wind in their massive sails to propel them to their destinations around the globe. The fastest ships were the most lucrative and profitable, so sailors needed fast winds and good luck to increase their earnings. Brits love their tea, so there were huge rewards for the fastest ships (top), which could sail from China to England in record time to deliver the freshly clipped tea leaves. In the 19th century, the ships—appropriately called “tea clippers”—would compete in famous races to be first ship to dock in London with the new tea leaves of the season. During the Great Tea Race of 1866, three ships (Taeping, Ariel, Serica) sailed over 14,000 miles from China to London in 99 days. They completed the journey with an extremely close finish, arriving with 1 1/2 hours of each other on the same tide. In 1870 on her maiden voyage, the fastest tea clipper ship called the Cutty Sark brought back 600,000 kg of tea, enough to make more than 200 million cups of tea. The Cutty Sark ship is now a tourist attraction in Greenwich (southeast London).
During their long voyages to distant lands, sailors had a lot of time to kill. They were often separated from their girlfriends and wives for many months. To pass the time, I can imagine that sailors took the coins in their pockets and engraved them with unique designs as they dreamed of their sweethearts back home. Several years ago, Graham duHeaume unearthed a George II halfpenny (above right), which was inscribed by hand with the words, “Mary Coombs—Sept 2, 1729.” In the center of the 18th-century coin, a beautifully detailed flower has also been skillfully engraved. Did a sailor customize this coin as he was longing to return to London to see Mary again? I wonder if the date is the day they met, got engaged, or married?
In the 17th–19th centuries, people would engrave common coins with the names of their lovers and messages of love. There are many theories as to why they did this. Maybe the coins were lovingly personalized to give as presents to their love interests in hope of starting a relationship. Possibly they were thrown into the river while whispering a prayer to the river gods for a blessing or for good luck in the relationship. Some of the customized coins are beautiful works of art. It must have taken hours or even days to carefully engrave the names and ornate designs into the surface of the coins. The painstakingly long process of producing these personalized coins demonstrates the strong desire and emotions of the admirers.
Above left: Victorian silver sixpence engraved with the words: “WHEN THIS YOU SEE, REMEMBER ME.” (Graham duHeaume). Above right: Victorian sixpence repurposed as a love token (Graham duHeaume).
In Allison Barker’s collection of mudlarking finds, she has two beautiful examples of engraved love tokens from the 19th century. They are both made from young Victoria silver sixpences. Queen Victoria is still visible on the front, but the coin has been worn smooth on the back and engraved with personal messages of love. Around the perimeter of one sixpence (above left), the poem reads, “WHEN THIS YOU SEE, REMEMBER ME.” A heart pierced by two arrows is depicted in the center surrounded by undulating vines with small leaves.
On the second sixpence (above right), the words read, “My heart is fixt, I cannot range, I like my choice too well to change” have been inscribed on the back of the coin. A circular border with two furls surrounds the central text. Because these customized coins were recovered from the bottom of the River Thames, it could possibly indicate that the love ended, and the love tokens were discarded.
Roman brothel token (PAS).
Prostitution is considered one of the oldest professions in the world, and it has existed in London for thousands of years. In 2010, the first known Roman brothel token (above) in Britain was discovered along the Thames foreshore in West London by Regis Cursan. Similar tokens have been found elsewhere in the Roman Empire, but none had been previously found in the UK.
On one side of the token or spintria, a naked man and woman are depicted having sex. The female lies on her front beneath the male who straddles her on a bed or couch decorated with a swag. The Roman numeral XIIII appears on the back of the token which could indicate the value of the token or price of the service. Some historians believe the token could have been worth 14 assarius coins. In the first century AD, this amount of money would have been the equivalent to one day’s wages for a laborer. The token could have been handed to a sex slave in one of the many Londinium brothels in exchange for the act depicted on the coin.
Caroline McDonald, the Museum of London’s former Senior Curator of Prehistory and Roman London, says: “This is the perfect archaeological object. It’s sexy and provocative in the best sense of the word. When we realized it was a saucy picture, we had a bit of a giggle, but there’s also a sad story behind it because these prostitutes were slaves. It has resonance with modern-day London, because people are still being sold into the sex trade. The lot of a Roman sex slave was not a happy one.”
Theaters located along the Southbank around 1630, (anonymous Dutch School painter).
In Tudor times, prostitution was not permitted within the City of London, so the red-light district flourished on the south side of the river. Looking for a great night out, men and women would cross the river in ferries to the Southbank. All types of entertainment were on offer. Bear and bull baiting, cock fighting, gambling, and visiting the theater were some of the most popular forms of entertainment in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the earliest known oil painting of London (above), many theater buildings are shown along the south side of the river. Flags proudly fly over the Swan, the Hope, the Rose, and the Globe theaters, which indicate that a performance was happening that evening. William Shakespeare’s well-known plays were featured on their stages.
16th-century Lyon token (Jason Sandy).
In 2020, I discovered a beautiful 16th-century token (above) in stunning condition. Dating to 1575–1590, a similar token was found during the excavations of the Rose theater along the Southbank. Built in 1587, it was the first purpose-built playhouse to stage a production of Shakespeare’s plays in the 16th century.
According to the Museum of London Archaeology who excavated the Rose Theatre in 1989–1990, the type of token I found would have been used by those who could afford the more expensive gallery seating in the playhouse. These pewter tokens, also known as “Lyon counters,” had other uses, too.
The Southbank was a lawless and raucous part of London where prostitution was rife. The ladies of the night were called “Winchester Geese” because the land on which they operated was owned by the Bishop of Winchester. The dark alleyways of Southwark provided the perfect place to perform their services. Named after the medieval term for a brothel, Stew Lane was a narrow, pedestrian path leading down to the Thames on the north side of the river. From here, watermen ferried passengers across the river to Southwark in the pursuit of pleasure. Directly on the other side of the river, there is a discreet alleyway called Cardinal Cap Alley, which led to a popular brothel named “The Cardinal’s Cap.” It was owned by Henry Cardinal Beaufort, the Bishop of Winchester, who wore a red cap during a parade in celebration of his appointment as a cardinal by the Pope in 1426.
Above left: Plaque outside Cross Bones Graveyard (ProfDEH). Above right: Cross Bones Graveyard entrance (Matt Brown).
Sadly, many of the prostitutes died from mistreatment, ill health, and sexually transmitted diseases contracted from the men they served. Because of their “immoral” profession, they were not allowed to be buried in the local churchyards. Since medieval times, they were laid to rest in the unconsecrated “Cross Bones Graveyard” (below) in Southwark. Today there is a small memorial to the hundreds of prostitutes who lived, worked, and died in the red-light district centuries ago. This desolate plot of land has an iron gate decorated with colorful ribbons and hand-written, personal messages remembering the “Outcast Dead” who were buried here.
Provider” sex token (Jason Sandy).
A few years ago, as I was mudlarking along the river in Southwark, I found a modern token with a steamy, erotic scene. On the front of the sex token, it says, “CONNECT WITH A PISCES, FEB 19–MAR 20.” On the back, it says, “PROVIDER,” and the service being “provided” is graphically illustrated. This modern token is evidence of the continuing association of Southwark with sex.
Steve Brooker found a similar token depicting a naked man and woman a different position. Above them is the word “CREATIVE” which describes their non-conventional way of love making. The token has been counter stamped with the abbreviation “NFM” which is slang for “Not for Me.” I can just imagine the person receiving this token, engraving their response, and returning the token, or in this case, throwing it in the river.
Above left: Suffragettes holding placard with campaign slogan. Above right: Victorian penny stamped with slogan “Votes for Women” (Florrie Evans).
For millennia, women have not been treated with equality. In Britain and most countries around the world, women were not given the same chance for a good education, the right to vote, equal job opportunities, and equal pay in comparison to men. At the turn of the 20th century, the suffragette movement was founded to raise awareness for this inequality and fight for women’s right to vote in public elections. In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst established the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Britain. The activist group used civil disobedience to make their voices heard through deeds, not words. They organized marches, carried out a nationwide arson and bombing campaign, went on hunger strike, destroyed government property, and heckled politicians. In 1907, hundreds of women stormed the Houses of Parliament along the River Thames. They smashed windows and chained themselves to railings to protest against inequality.
To spread their message to the general public, the suffragettes defaced government coins with their slogan. The coins remained in circulation and exchanged hands many times, conveying their motto to a wider audience. In 2021, Florrie Evans spotted an unusual coin (above) as she was nightlarking. As she plucked the coin out of the black mud, Florrie could see the words, “VOTES FOR WOMEN” stamped into the surface of the Victorian halfpenny dated 1899. On the back of the coin, the suffragette union’s initials “WSPU” have been engraved. Florrie explains the special photos above: “I’ve displayed my coin on illustrations by Max Beerbohm of his eponymous heroine Zuleika Dobson, a novel published by my great-grandfather in 1911 (a patriarchal lineage). Zuleika’s super-power was charming young men to mass suicide in the name of unrequited love. Even in jest, women were regarded as a danger to—or the cause of—male fragility! Plus ça change?”
Although some women were given the right to vote in 1918, it took ten more years before every woman over age 21 could vote in public elections in Britain. Ultimately, the suffragettes achieved their goal through their activism and sheer determination. Although the equality gap between men and women is slowly closing, there is still a lot of work to do.
Join Jason for a half-hour video beachcombing trip to some of his favorite spots on the River Thames, where he finds treasures buried for centuries in the London mud. He also shares some of his favorite pieces in his extensive collection of finds from prehistory through modern times.
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This article appeared in Beachcombing Magazine Volume 44 September/October 2024
